Marlbrook Tip works explained at meeting

RESIDENTS wanting to find out the latest developments surrounding Marlbrook Tip are being urged to go to a meeting at 7pm on February 10 at Lickey Parish Hall.

Representatives from the Environment Agency (EA), along with officers and councillors, will be on hand to explain the current situation and answer questions.

The ownerof Marlbrook Tip and reservoir has been ordered to improve the site so it complies with legal regulations.

Instructions have been given for a 300mm layer of restoration soils to be added to the site togeather with some recontouring before the surface is finished and seeded to grass.

It comes after a discussion between Bromsgrove District Council and the Environment Agency's statutory engineers and legal enforcers, which regulate the UK's reservoirs.

The works were ordered by the Environment Agency's statutory ‘panel engineer’ who was appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to deal with reservoirs under the Reservoirs Act 1975 - failure to comply would be a criminal offence.

Once finished it is hoped the issues to do with materials being deposited on the land, over the last five years, would be resolved.

Ruth Bamford, the district council’s head of planning, said the enforcement agencies had all worked on the site for over a year and were now in a position to set out a clear way forward.

She added: "We recognise that local residents are unlikely to welcome more material being brought onto the site.

"But we are advised by the panel engineer’s department that what is being proposed is necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the site and the reservoir."